Worn Again Technologies opens R&D facility

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Feb 3, 2020

Worn Again Technologies, a company working towards circular fashion, has opened a pilot research and development (R&D) facility in the North East of England.

Backed by the likes of H&M, Kering and Mexico-based garment manufacturer Himes Corporation, Worn Again was founded in East London in 2005 with a vision for a waste-free world where all textile resources are kept in constant circulation.

It hopes to achieve this by revolutionising the industry’s current recycling methods, which are unable to separate dyes and other contaminants in mixed textiles and unable to separate blended polyester and cotton.

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So it has developed a pioneering polymer recycling technology that can separate, decontaminate and extract polyester polymers and cellulose from cotton, from non-reusable textiles, PET bottles and packaging and turn them back into new textile raw materials.

The R&D plant, located at CPI, a technology and innovation centre in Redcar, will further develop this technology ahead of the planned launch of an industrial demonstration facility in 2021.

Nick Ryan, Worn Again Technologies technology director said: “The pilot is a significant step in developments as it will allow us to confirm and further optimise the different steps in the process in one unit, accelerating our engineering development to the next step of a demonstrator plant.”

Founder Cyndi Rhoades, added: “It is exciting to have progressed our developments from lab to plant. While there is still a long road ahead, it’s the next tangible step getting us closer to a scalable, commercially viable industrial process that will enable the move away from using finite virgin resources to the circularity of raw materials.”